I can’t emphasize enough how, despite its lurid premise, “Bad Santa” is actually a real movie, with fleshed-out characters and good production values, and not just something sloppy like “Dude Where’s My Car?” or “Sorority Boys.” Instead of the cheap and lazy direction characteristic of the aforementioned films, “Bad Santa” is directed by Terry Zwigoff, (“Ghost World,” “Crumb”) a caliber of director who elevates the movie from a simple flatulence comedy to a sublime flatulence epic. “Bad Santa” is also edited surprisingly well. After watching “Cold Mountain,” “Gangs of New York,” and all three “Lord of the Rings” flicks, five big budget epics that I enjoyed but found choppy, “Bad Santa’s” relatively long takes and mostly invisible editing choices are refreshing. Characters like Bad Santa and Bernie Mac’s store detective need to be looked at for long stretches at a time to be understood, and not cut to something else.
I like that Christmas in “Bad Santa” is not entirely secular. The fat kid adores the Christmas story in his advent calendar, Marcus the Dwarf plows through a nativity scene without remorse, and every third profanity seems to have been replaced with the exclamation “Jesus Christ!” People are always saying that Hollywood is corrupting our culture, but I think, in 9 out of 10 cases, you take out what you bring in. If you expect to see a movie that makes you feel good about your atheism or, conversely, will allow you to puff up your chest in a morally self-righteous, Hollywood-is-a-sewer kind of way, you won’t be disappointed. But I couldn’t help feeling that “Bad Santa” seems to be emphasizing Jesus’ humanity, which is what Christmas is all about anyway, by making him one of the boys, by letting him in on the joke. I would have found the movie drier, and possibly genuinely offensive, if there had been no Jesus at all, as if to imply that He is too marginal to include in a movie about Christmas. And Bad Santa is such a scumbag, who cares what he thinks about the Lord?
That said, parents who take small children to this movie should be shot. And not just because it’s clearly rated R and packed with obscenities, but because it’s appeal is so complicated. Small children may not be able to understand how grown-ups can love something and at the same time smack their lips with delight at the thought of this beloved thing getting ridiculed. I don’t even understand it. I dig Jesus, the Virgin Mary, Christmas lights, presents, my relatives, and all that Christmas stuff. (I also recognize that the historical St. Nicolas, the fourth-century bishop upon whom Santa Claus is based, is probably spinning in his grave at the thought of having been divorced so much from religion that churches actually use him as the symbol of secular consumerism.) But there’s always that danger of spending all of December in a pissed-off stupor, and we need salves like “Bad Santa” to ease the pain by letting us know we’re not alone. The holidays can get under other people’s skin, too.
P.S. 2003 has been a good year for younger actresses (“Thirteen,” “Whale Rider,” “Bend It Like Beckham,” and “I Capture the Castle”), but, with Tony Cox in “Bad Santa” and Peter Dinklage in “The Station Agent,” has also been a good year for short actors proving that they’re actors and not just novelties. Isn’t that cool?
Finished December 30th, 2003
Copyright © 2003 Friday & Saturday Night
WOULD I RECOMMEND THIS MOVIE TO…
Small children: No
Parents-in-law: God no.
Mom: Absolutely not.
Dad: Oh hell yeah.
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